#3 WILL SHOCK YOU!

The virtual market for in-game items has seen its good share of surprises ever since the inception of player to player trades which allowed gamers to not only trade items between themselves in-game but also sell goods for real-life cash. Although multiple developers and publishers have been trying to discourage these acts as it can lead to some very ugly situations, efforts are usually thwarted by the gaming community itself as gamers are always on the lookout for any loopholes to keep their item selling businesses going.

Now the value for virtual goods aren’t always all about the sale value but at some instances the overall value of the time and effort being put to acquiring a said item or items, with the experts in the gaming community (and sometimes even the game creators themselves) assessing said values, from structures, virtual properties, in-game collectibles and the like. With that here are some of our picks for virtual items and goods that have been valued at very ridiculous prices.

EVE Online’s Death Star

EVE Online is no stranger to stories of how real life money is being thrown around in exchange for virtual goods and services, and sometimes casualties with its tales of virtual space battles which damage toll reaches hundreds of thousands of actual US Dollars, to people hiring mercenaries to perform virtual hits on enemy groups. Perhaps one of the game’s most celebrated “achievements” for this present age is how one of the game’s most prominent groups, Hard Knocks, was able to create their own in-game doomsday spaceship, the Keepstar.

Easily described as EVE Online’s very own version of the Death Star, the humongous space fortress, complete with its own superweapon, took hundreds, if not thousands of combined man hours to complete as Hard Knocks had to come up with ridiculous methods to transport equipment across EVE’s chaotic universe, with the group having multiple rivals in-game. While logistics were a nightmare, money isn’t a problem for Hard Knocks as they were able to finance the whole project easily, and once complete the whole doomsday structure had an estimated value of USD 15,000, or maybe even more.

Still, with Hard Knocks reputation, it was no surprise that multiple enemy factions launched a full scale attack on the Keepstar citadel, and the space monster finally collapsed.

Dota 2’s Enduring War Dog (with custom effects)

To learn just how expensive Dota 2’s in-game cosmetics are should be of no surprise to its players with items such as rare (or Ultra Rare) weapons and couriers being sold for hundreds, if not, thousands of dollars. Now, one of the most common stories of highly priced Dota 2 cosmetics would involved the Platinum Baby Roshan, which can only be obtained by reaching the highest rank in Dota 2’s now defunct seasonal event, the Diretide. The item had its market value peaked at around USD 1,800 but even this value did not reach half of what maybe the most expensive Dota 2 item yet, a Mythical rarity courier with custom effects that was said to be sold for a whooping USD 38,000.

Now despite being a Mythical rarity item, the base price for the Enduring War Dog is basically crap with Steam Market listings usually valuing it at USD 0.08, but how did it manage to reach and go beyond the realm of USD 30,000 is rather interesting. According to its seller, redditor PAADA, the custom Pink colored Ethereal Flame effect helped boost the price to ridiculous amounts as the color itself is a very, very, very, VERY rare pallet for the effect itself not to mention that the randomizer helped made sure that this feat will not replicated easily.

Entropia Universe’s properties

If you’re looking for a virtual escape and live another life in a sci-fi universe then gamers of old would suggest that you try out Entropia Universe, a massive multiplayer online virtual simulation title that dates back to 2003. The game offers the experience to actually live out the life of the survivalist in a distant planet, complete with hunting, crafting, trading, mining, and the like. With the mechanic of acquiring and spending resources, it will be to no one’s surprise as to how people would rather spend actual money rather than putting up tremendous amounts of effort to get themselves amped up in-game. Some of these tales include player Jon Jacob, a film director, spending USD 100,000 to buy a virtual space station and how an investor paid USD 2.5 Million to acquire a piece of the game’s virtual real estate and the famous Club Neverdie which was sold for USD 635,000. But perhaps the MOST RIDICULOUS of them all is how a group of developers bought themselves a virtual planet to start their own game with a whooping value of USD 6 Million.

Second Life’s Amsterdam

Moving on to more virtual real estate, the game Second Life also has its share of ridiculous stories of in-game items valued at astounding real life prices. The game, developed by Linden Lab and was launched back in 2003 also offers the experience of living a secondary virtual life, with activities that mimic real life (hence the name Second Life). While it is a free to play game, players were given the option to pay for extra services such as having additional accounts under the same household, better tech support and as well getting more in-game money. With business transactions being a central part of the game it’s no surprise (did I say no surprise?) that one of the businesses being made by players involve virtual Real Estate which then led to the game’s most ridiculous purchase, a recreation of the red light district city of Amsterdam which valued at USD 50,000.

Ragnarok Mobile’s Key of Heaven Mount

Ragnarok Online is one of the most iconic MMORPGs in the Eastern Hemisphere and has a major influence on old school gamers, mainly in South East Asia, so it’s rather obvious how its new mobile counterpart, Ragnarok Mobile Eternal Love to have earn its own surge of popularity, ranging from average gamers to ones with deep pockets, and by deep we mean VERY DEEP.

Just recently the game made rounds in various news sites with players selling and buying rare items for very high prices at the game’s auction house, such as the Ghost String card which got sold for USD 6,000, however, a more recent event topped the ridiculousness of the previous auction house purchase with a GM Event Only item getting sold for 360,00 BCC, or Big Cat Coin, the type of currency used at the auction house, which real money value sits at around USD 61,000.